Skill Order

Champion Matchups

Introduction

Hello guys, I am a Silver 2 player. I am not the best, but I do think I play a very decent Darius. Now, in this guide I will teach you how to properly jungle/top him, how to build and how to make it fit the situation, how to successfully get off ganks, and to get freelo.

Pro:

-His name is close to Dyrus's
-Does A Ton Of Damage
-Has a slow
-Can bounce back from ANY situation
-Damage over time
-An amazing pull
-Bioforge Skin
-The most OP ultimate
-Armor Pen
-he's just OP, okay?

Cons:
-He can easily be kited
-Slow
-Mana problems (until Sheen)
-Hexdrinker is sometimes a MUST GET item

Masteries

Jungle masteries:

Why do this exactly? Well, for one, it gives you the perfect amount of defense that you will ever need. Second of all, it gives you attack speed, and damage. This will help you sustain in the jungle, and in team fights.

Let me break it down to you. For the defensive part you get these bonuses:
-More health
-Crowd Control reduction
-Bonus armor and magic resistance
-Reduced damage from monsters and hurts them by 6 every attack (doesn't work for top lane)
-Reduced damage taken from turrets
-+10 gold from smite.

Runes

Why would you do this? It gives you attack speed for your passive, which allows you to get your stacks off for your ult. Secondly, it gives you armor and magic resistance for you to sustain in the jungle. Lastly, it gives you movement speed. Darius is slow... if you get caught, and you're not fed... Let's just say it won't end well.

: Darius has no escapes at all. If he get's caught, he's most likely dead. Super easy to kite, so be careful. Taking Flash will also help you win teamfights, or help initiate them. All you have to do is - - - -

: Do not do it! You have no escapes. Sure you will get the exhaust buff, but that will most likely not save you from a 1v3. Flash can. If you do take exhaust, make sure it's against a team where they can't kite you easily. One of his biggest cons is he is easily kited. Keep that in mind.

: If you want to take ghost, that's fine, I just feel like Flash is better. This will help him from getting kited down so easily, or it will help him secure a kill.

: I personally would not take exhaust just because Darius can be kited so easily.

Description:
Exhausts target enemy champion, reducing their movement speed and damage dealt by 30% for 2.5 seconds and reducing their attack speed by 50% for the duration.

Skills

Passive: Hemorrhage

Explanation:
Hemorrhage is one of the main things that makes Darius strong. His Hemorrhage not only gives damage over time, but it also stacks with his ult, AND it scales off of AD. He also gains 5% movement speed for each bleeding champion. Hemorrhage will secure kills for you, help you escape, and let you do more true damage.

Decimate is the skill you want to max first, just because it's what will make you do the most damage, and it's helpful for farming your jungle creeps. Champions that are hit by the outer circle take up to 50% more damage.

(Active): Darius deals physical damage to all nearby enemies in a circle around him. Champions in the outer half of the ability are struck by the blade, taking 50% additional damage.Cost: 40 manaRange: 425

Crippling Strike is Darius's slow. This allows him to get off his stacks on you, while you sit there and cry. It also gets a lower cooldown with the more stacks of hemorrhage you have. Also, as soon as you auto attack then immediately use Crippling Strike then you immediately auto attack regardless of your attack speed. This will max out your attack damage.

(Active): Darius' next basic attack deals additional damage and slows the target's movement and attack speed for 2 seconds.
Crippling Strike's base cooldown is reduced by 1 second for each stack of Hemorrhage on the target.Cooldown: 8 secondsRange: 125

This is what will get most of your ganks off as a jungler. It's active passive gives you a pull, within a area. It will pull any minion, or champion in that cone. It's passive gives him armor penetration, so this with the black cleaver will just tear away the enemies armor.

Noxian Guillotine... Oh how I love this skill. This right here, is why everyone hates Darius. The reason why he is... The Dunk Master. This skill does true damage. It scales off of your AD, and it does more damage with the more hemorrhage stacks. After you kill a champion, IT REFRESHES. It will also refresh on WuKong's clone, and Shaco's.

Skill Order

Safe jungle route: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

So why would you max first? Well, it's your main source of damage. Clearing camps would be difficult if you did not max this. You would be doing little damage, and your ganks will also be less effective. I really suggest maxing Q first.

Ganking route: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Getting at level 3 will allow you to get a decent gank off. You can pull the enemy towards you, and then slow them using . Try and give your lane the kill, if not it's fine, they will still be ahead of the enemy because of the first blood assist.

Item Builds

: Hunters Machete stacks with Darius's passive. This item is an item every jungle should get. It makes their clear time fantastic, and it will definitely help them sustain in the jungle.

: This item allows you to do a lot more damage to the jungle creeps and will make your clear time a lot faster. This item gives you health AND mana regen, extra damage, 10 percent cooldown reduction, and two unique passives Butcher and Incinerate. Those will add onto your damage output.

: Always as Darius, unless for some reason you need to go Ninja Tabi (It's not a bad choice to go Ninja Tabi, I just prefer Merc Treads). Why? Because it gives you tenacity and magic resistance. You need to be able to make escapes as Darius, cause he has none.

: If you're having trouble jungling, or you're going against someone like Nocturne, Lee Sin, or and bruiser, you can take this. It will give you the armor needed to sustain in fights against them, and in the jungle.

+ : Phage for the health, and slow. Not only that, but it builds into a Frozen Mallet or Trinity Force. Now for The Brutalizer, you will want this for the armor penetration. It will also build into a Black Cleaver later on.

: Why would you get this? Because it boosts up all of your stats. It gives you movement speed, attack speed, crit chance, mana, health, attack damage... etc. HOW CAN YOU SAY NO?

: This item is phenomenal. It gives you heal and armor penetration, with a good amount of attack damage. It goes extremely well with Darius, considering his E gives him armor penetration as well.

OR : Maw for the shield and damage, or Mercurial for the disable of defects and damage.

: If you're just dominating late game you can get this or if you feel like you need more damage. Bloodthirster gives you extra AD based on how many minions you kill. On every death you lose half of your stacks. It also gives you a good amount of lifesteal.

: If you want to get this instead of Triforce, that's fine. You'll just be missing out on mana, speed, and it's amazing passive. The pros of getting this, is that you'll get health and a slow. I would suggest only getting this if you're behind and need the extra health. Triforce is mainly if you are ahead.

LATE GAME BUILD FOR DAMAGE: OR -- - - - OR (ALL HAS TO DO WITH PREFERENCE)

LATE GAME FOR TANKINESS: OR - - - - -

OTHER GOOD ITEMS:

: If you're going against someone who relies on attack speed, you should take this item. This will give you health and armor. The passive allows you to slow the attacker's attack speed by 15% and movement speed by 10%. The active lowers everyone movement speed by 35% for 2 seconds.

: This is a good item to take if you need armor and health. It also does an AoE (area of effect) which is good for split pushing and clearing camps.

Early Game

Early game: You will want to start wolves. Make sure your lanes come to help you. You will want to do a smiteless leash, meaning you will have your lanes do a lot of damage to the buff so you don't have to smite it. BUT WHY NOT SMITE IT? Because, you're saving it for red. You will have a faster clearing time than their jungler, unless they do the same of course.

Incase of counter jungle: Do wraiths, then red. Try and get a smiteless leash still, because if you do that, you can rush to their blue and grab it fast. Make sure you're smart about it though!

WARDING: You should ward by your wraiths, and their wraiths. Early warding will allow you to determine whether or not the other jungler is full health, or if you can go in and potentially get first blood. (if you make them burn flash or exhaust, that's good too)

This will give you an idea of where to ward, and where to (politely) ask your support or mid to ward.

Mid Game

Around 15 minutes to 20 minutes, you should be pretty decent off. You will have your ultimate, a decent build, and a couple assists. Mid game you want to make sure you keep Dragon and Baron warded, because if one person is out of place, the enemy team can easily sneak one or the other. It's not only your duty to do it, but you still need to contribute to warding. Also, Oracles aren't needed but help a lot.

Another thing: I know it says Darius Spams R, but seriously, don't take all of the kills. You would rather have 5 people fed than just one.

How to win mid game:
Step 1) Camp top and mid.
Step 2) If one is too hard, try and camp bot.
Step 3) Don't waste time, either clear camps or gank.
Step 4) Keep dragon warded.
Step 5) try and push down the first set of turrets.
Step 6) Feed your lane

Late Game

Okay so late game is the fun part. You should have close to a good build (Merc Treads, Triforce, Black Cleaver, etc). With that said, your role is to make sure you keep your carry alive, and to make the right decisions in team fights. You need to have good focus. If you're focusing the tank in a team fight, and their ADC or their Mid is running right by you, you're doing it wrong.

Some things you should consider during late game...
1) Could they easily get Baron? Oh? They can? Ward it and pressure mid.
2) How easily is it to the ADC or Mid? Would it make us win a team fight, or lose?
3) How much damage do they do. If they do a lot of damage, go super tank Darius. (Frozen Mallet, Randuins, Mercury's Treads, Guardian Angel, The Black Cleaver, and Mercurial Scimitar)
4) You're stomping them, and they can't do anything? Build the damage side, and also get tanky items!

Team Fights

Spam R.

Just kidding. Your main role in team fights is to take down the Mid or the ADC because they are generally the squishiest and easiest to kill. Now, if you can use your E to pull one of them, that is a potential team fight win. Just focus down the right people, get your stacks off, and use your ultimate when needed. If you're about to die and you can't kill anyone with your ult to get it refreshed, USE IT ANYWAYS. It has a small cooldown. Do as much damage as possible.

Step 1: Save your E for the carry, or a chase.
Step 2: Focus one person until you get all of your hemorrhage stacks off.
Step 3: While doing step 2, spam your Q.
Step 4: Use your E and W to catch any one who's running.
Step 5: Now spam your ult.

Counter Jungling

Whenever you get the chance to counter jungle you should take it, whether it's taking wraiths, or wolves, to taking red buff or blue. There are many ways to know when to counter jungle. All you have to do is ward their wraiths, or wolves, whichever you feel like camping and just know when and where the other jungler is at. Let's say a Lee Sin is ganking bot lane, and you just finished wraiths, you can run over and steal his blue!

Another way you can counter jungle is just simple ward their buff. Then, you wait for them to start it. If it's early game, you might get a kill. Just wait for them to weaken it, right click on the red/blue buff, watch it's health and smite it as soon as it gets low enough. Now, their jungler might ping a lot and scream at their teammates, so they will either come after you, or you will make a clean escape. It's better to just run away though, since you're Darius.

Counter Picks

Darius is strong against a lot of people. He will be able to fight a lot of champions, but do it with caution.

VERY DIFFICULT:

: A hard fight, you probably shouldn't do it alone. He has a knock up, a silence, and true damage as well. Merc treads are strong here

: A hard fight, his stun and dodge will hurt you quite a bit. Ninja Tabi is a good choice and so is Randuins Omen.

: He can kite you with his Q, does true damage with his E, and gets more attack damage and life steal with his W. Also, keep his passive in mind, the lower the health, the more attack speed.

: You can fight him, and counter jungle him, but do it with caution. He can and will destroy you.

MEDIUM:

: You should not fight him. His early game is extremely strong and he just has a really good kit right now.

: You can fight him just make sure you kill him fast enough and have an easy way of getting out of his jungle before his team responds.

: You can fight him. Ninja Tabi are strong against him. He should be extremely aggressive early game so try and counter gank him.

: Fight him, counter jungle him, but do it with caution.

: You can fight him, but I'd suggest not doing it alone. Stuns, attack speed, and a shield.

: Same with Lee Sin. Do it with caution. Better off not doing it.

EASY:

: Fight him, counter jungle him, rofl stomp him.

: Fight him, destroy him, make him cry. He can fight you, but just do all of this with caution.

: Watch out for him inside of your jungle. You can kill him if he get's close, but do it with caution.

: Fight him, counter jungle him, but do it carefully.

: fight her, destroy her, but be careful. Don't be dumb about it.

: DESTROY HER. Enough said.

: JUST LIKE SEJUANI. MAKE SURE HE CAN'T JUNGLE.... AT ALL.

: Mundo is extremely weak right now. The jungle monsters hurt him too much. You need to counter jungle him EXTREMELY early, and punish him.

Winning The Jungle

Let's say the enemy teams jungle is Amumu ... He has a hard time in the jungle without his blue... Maybe you should... STEAL IT.

Champions you should steal blue from:

: OH GOD. Take away his blue, and he is going to get so far behind.

: He can live without it, but it will surely hurt him, and might stop him from ganking for awhile.

: Rare to see, but if you take his blue, he will also have a hard time. He should be able to live without it, but he will still be struggling. That's when you counter jungle him even more.

: He can live without blue buff. It'll hurt him, but not that much.

: Yeah, take it. She will hurt badly from it. She will get so far behind. You can just counter jungle her more and more, and just make sure she never does it again.

: She will hurt from it pretty bad. You take this, and secure your blue too, she's probably done for until mid game. Around there she will start to have Sheen.

: Steal it. Fiddle without blue is devastating. He will cry more than Amumu does.

: He can live without it, but still do it. It will hurt him pretty decently. Just make sure you secure your blue.

: He can live without it. I'd stay away.

: It'll hurt him bad. He's already weak, so why not make him weaker?

: Won't hurt him at all. Might make him get back in exp, but that's it.

: This will hurt Malphite pretty hard. He needs to be able to spam his E. He won't be able to without having to go back 5000 times.

: Steal it from him. He might be able to go on without it, but it will hurt him

: He can go without it.

: He will probably need it. Can go on without it, but it will still hurt him. He won't be able to spam his axe.

: She'll never play Sejuani again.

: He can go without it, but it'll hurt him.

: He can go without, but will hurt him.

: This will make him cry... Sorry Warwick.

Small Top Lane Guide

Pros:

One of the best Solo Top Traders

Auto-Attack Enhancer (W) hits turrets and proc's Tri-Force

Hard to build against due to Passive and True Damage

Has a great AoE spell that also wave clears

Great at, literally, "apprehending" people out of position

Scaling true damage ultimate.

Cons:

Kited for DAYS

Hard to go on Dunking Spree's due to some mana issues (Unless you get Triforce )

Has no escape when Flash isn't up

Has quite a few counters top lane, however a lot of it comes down to skill

Top lane your role in the game is a little different. If you get shut down, you don't have to worry too much about it. Just farm as much as you can with your Q. I personally think no-one really counters Darius, but there are only people who can lane against him. For example, Jayce. Jayce is a great top laner, but at around level six, Darius beats Jayce. Here is a list of people Darius Counters, and who "counters" him.

Darius counters...

: You can freely Q when she goes invisible, and you can pull her out of it, and slow her. Building Hextech and Merc Treads would be smart.

: Can easily fight her. Dodge her skillshots, and just Q her.

: He will beat you early game. If you can dodge his cleavers and know when to fight him, you should be good. Mid game you'll be able to beat him in a fight.

: You can beat malphite. Keep spamming Q on him, keep those hemorrhage stacks, and just farm to win.

"Countered" by...

: I wouldn't pick Darius against him. Merc treads, and Hextech are needed. Make sure you dodge his rupture, and watch out for his silence.

: This is a weird match up. You will beat Irelia early game, but she will beat you mid game. Then late game, it all about skill. Building armor won't do much, since she gets armor penetration. Frozen Mallet would be a good choice.

: Jax's stun and constant dodging will hurt you pretty bad. You won't be able to win in a straight up fight until later on. Farm the best you can, ask for junglers help. Wait to buy the Black Cleaver, and build Frozen Heart.

: Before level 6, Jayce can just poke you to death. Start armor and 5 health pots. Ask for junglers help, and just be smart.

: She will beat you before level 6. She has the range and damage needed to push you out of lane. If you can live long enough to farm to level 6, you're good. Also, watch out for her ult. Wait for it to end before you use your ultimate.

RUNES: Same for jungle

ROLE IN TEAM FIGHTS:

Step 1: Save your E for the carry, or a chase.
Step 2: Focus one person until you get all of your hemorrhage stacks off.
Step 3: While doing step 2, spam your Q.
Step 4: Use your E and W to catch any one who's running.
Step 5: Now spam your ult.

Final Comments

Any Questions? Comment below, and I will respond. Also, you can like my page. I will post my League of Legends games there, and I will answer questions there too! Thank you so much!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Darius-Spams-R/439231172805319

People who have inspired me to do this and or helped me along the way:
-Dyrus
-Dragonxmh

<3 Thank you so much!

Comments

See that comment below mine? Still applies. Look at this: http://www.solomid.net/guides.php?g=35596-slater-von-j-ger-generic-build-guide to see the meaning of in depth. Even if your guide was approval worthy (it isn't), if it doesn't meet the requirements listed in there for an in depth guide, it won't be approved if the title says that it's in depth.

Summoner spells have relatively no information. Skills chapter is way to short on the explanation of each skill. items chapter is seriously lacking. all game phase chapters are lacking. Short top lane guide in an "in depth guide". sorry no. If you're going to write for a whole other role, then please, write actual chpaters for it, especially if you claim to be in depth.

Being in depth means being in depth. You can't just provide a sentence or two for something, and call it in depth. You have to go above and beyond to be in depth. I'm not saying this as a personal thought, I'm saying this because the meaning of in depth means it you cut no corners, and you provide multitudes of information. I woudl suggest either writing this as a true in depth document, or change your title. Not trying to be mean, just letting you know every GM will see your title, and will instantly look over the guide and automatically cut it down if it doesn't match the title's claim.